1. SURVEILLANCE STATES: Government spying, civil liberties and the “special relationship”:
The
American Civil Liberties Union, PEN American
Center and Statewatch invite you to join experts
from the US and UK at Garden Court Chambers on 31
May 2009 for a discussion of mass surveillance,
its implications, and challenges to government
policy and practice. The panel will be moderated
by Carla Ferstman, director of REDRESS, a human
rights organisation that helps torture survivors
obtain justice and reparation. Date: Sunday, 31
May 2009: Time: 5:00pm – 6:30pm. Location: Garden
Court Chambers, 57- 60 Lincoln’s Inn Fields,
London WC2A 3LS:www.statewatch.org/news/2009/may/surveillance-states-seminar.pdf

The panel will feature: JAMEEL JAFFER, director
of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)’s
National Security Project; PATRICK RADDEN KEEFE
is a fellow at the Century Foundation, a
progressive policy think tank, and a frequent
contributor to The New Yorker, The New York
Review of Books, Slate, and other publications on
issues of national security, civil liberties,
human rights, and the rule of law; BEN HAYES,
associate director of Statewatch; LARRY SIEMS,
director of PEN American Center’s Freedom to
Write program, which defends writers facing
persecution around the world, and PEN’s Campaign
for Core Freedoms, a major initiative to turn
back new threats to freedom of expression in the United States.

“When the pamphlet ‘Crimes of Arrival’ was
written, in 1995, the title was a metaphor for
the way the British government, in common with
other European governments, treated migrants and
especially, asylum seekers. Now, a decade on,
that title describes a literal truth…

There is a frightening continuity between the
treatment of asylum claimants and that of
terrorist suspects. In the name of the defence of
our way of life and our enlightenment values from
attack by terrorists or by poor migrants, that
way of life is being destroyed by creeping
authoritarianism, and those values – amongst
which the most important is the universality of human rights – betrayed.”

“Welcoming the decision of the President of the
United States of America to close the Guantanamo
Bay Detention Centre and to order a review of detention, trial,
transfer and interrogation policies in the fight against terrorism”

5. UK: National Union of Journalists: NUJ slams
Tamil protest policing (NUJ, link):“The NUJ has
today (Friday) hit out at the treatment of journalists by police at a Tamil
protest outside the Houses of Parliament on Monday (11/05/09)”:www.nuj.org.uk/innerPagenuj.html?docid=1231

6. EU ACCESS TO DOCUMENTS REGULATION: Council of
the European Union: Proposal made by Denmark,
Estonia, Finland and Slovenia concerning Article 4,
paragraph 2, point (c) of the Commission’s
proposal: Following the European Court of Justice
judgment in the Turco case that Council Legal Opinions on policy-making
measures should in general be made publicly
available these four Member States are proposing
that the Regulation be amended to establish this right.www.statewatch.org/news/2009/may/
eu-access-reg-council-9716-09.pdf

and Memorandum to the European Commission:
Violations of EC law and the fundamental rights
of Roma and Sinti by the Italian government in
the implementation of the census in “Nomad
camps”: www.statewatch.org/news/2009/may/italy-ercc.pdf

“In the margins of the EU-US Troika on Justice
and Home Affairs Ministerial Meeting held in
Prague on 28 April, Frontex and the US Department of Homeland Security
signed a Working Arrangement on the establishment of operational cooperation.

The arrangement which was signed by Frontex
Executive Director Ilkka Laitinen and Mrs. Jane
Holl Lute, Deputy Secretary of the US Department of Homeland Security,
will lead to transatlantic cooperation in areas
related to border security management including
exchange of strategic information, training, capacity building and
collaboration on relevant technologies.”

15. “Make sure you say that you were treated
properly”, Gareth Peirce writes about Torture, Secrecy and the British State (London Review of Books). She is a lawyer
who has since the 1970s represented individuals
accused of involvement in terrorism from both the
Irish and the Muslim communities:www.lrb.co.uk/v31/n09/peir01_.html

and: Jesuit Refugee Service: Removal of 227
migrants to Libya directly contravenes
international laws (Press release): “The forced removal of 227 men and women to
Libya by Italian authorities is absolutely
unacceptable. With no opportunity to make an
asylum claim these migrants now risk
ill-\treatment or being pushed back into the
arms of their persecutors.”:www.statewatch.org/news/2009/may/italy-libya-jrs-prel.pdf

The European Parliament (EP) has just completed
its last session before breaking for elections in
June 2009. This analysis first of all lists all of the proposals which the
Commission has announced for the rest of 2009 and
secondly, all pending measures which have already
been proposed, and which are under active discussion as of 7
May 2009.

“The Czech EU Presidency regrets the fact that
the European Parliament did not honour the
agreement reached with the Council of the EU and the European
Commission on the important overhaul of rules
governing the telecoms market… It is evident
that the whole package has become hostage to the pre-election campaign
of a part of MEPs.”

Tony Bunyan, Statewatch editor, comments:“Normally “deals” reached in secret trialogues
between the Council and the European Parliament go through on the nod.
This is the first time I know of that the EP
plenary has ever refused to go along with an
informal deal with the Council agreed in the
co-decision process. On this occasion
the grave concerns of civil society have been listened to.”

“A user’s Internet access cannot be restricted
without prior ruling by the judicial authorities,
insists the European Parliament reinstating one of its first-reading
amendments. By amending an informal agreement
reached with Council, MEPs send the whole “telecom package” to conciliation.”

“HUMABIO is a EC co-funded “Specific Targeted
Research Project” (STREP) where new types of
biometrics are combined with state of the art sensorial technologies in
order to enhance security in a wide spectrum of
applications like transportation safety and
continuous authentication in safety critical environments like laboratories,
airports or other buildings.”

Although agreed back in 2004 it has taken over
five years for each EU government and the USA to
ratify these two agreements – the process is
nearly complete. The agreement on extradition is
controversial and that on, seemingly
straightforward, “mutual assistance” is
far-reaching in terms of police cooperation and
the exchange of personal data. This is being
adopted in the UK as an international Treaty
without discussion – and the UK is formally
committed to enacting it as a result of the EU-US agreement.